The next morning…
The second and third positions by Barbara and Nakajima in the Race didn't lighten up the moods of everyone at FEISAR, a feeling that was shared with everyone across the Teams the moment the once affiliated group Pir-hana became an independent Team under the nose of everyone. The newsreels, newspapers and socials exploded altogether with catchy headlines and genuine reactions of shock over the Fifth Team, all in less than 24 hours since they ended up on Subway.
"Panic at the Track! When did Pir-hana become a Team overnight?"
"Huge plot twist of the AGRF! What consequences will this hold over the Teams?"
"Will Pir-hana reshape the Sport also on track? How their Speed Class could change everything if approved by the Federation…"
Barbara skimmed through before a line from Float Nation made her roll her eyes with a not-so-velated annoyance.
"Sparks flew already between the Second Pilot of Pir-hana and the Italian Test Pilot of FEISAR, Sant'Elia! Will they be a fiercer version of Solaar and Cherovoski, or–"
She flicked past the page on her screen and put it down with a small groan, not even being in the mood to look at the shot taken of her lunging at the Canadian with all her might, if it wasn't for a group of stewards holding her back. Despite being worth to be hanged in a museum for how "accidental Renaissance" the effect was on the final shot, she preferred to remember all the tumultuous feelings she felt there.
Deep down, she felt sorry for the public overreaction toward her, but she won't give any apology unless she'll know the truth of their actions, or if she'll explain everything from start to finish.
All the while, her phone was filled to the brim with notifications from most of her contacts and unknown ones after the shockwave of all the news popping up all around the event, enough that she silenced them all for today, but none came from her. Instead, she preferred to talk it out with her mother later that day, when she could ease up post-training and just sit down over one of the pretty buildings of NSC. Nothing came out much through the conversations, but she felt more uplifted and at ease than having her mind stuck in a pressure cooker. All she needed after that point was a good sleep, hoping that it was all a long, bad dream…
The next morning, a notification on her phone shook her entire body up more alert than a double espresso, it was Malina's number.
"Meet me up at Central Park, this evening at 7pm. Please, don't be late."
Central Park, Nova State City, 7:05pm
When it wasn't racing time, the section of Central Park untouched by the AGRC looked like a corner of paradise under the setting sun's atmosphere of the flourishing spring all around them, in stark contrast with the forest of buildings beyond the tallest trees of the almost infinite green area. No engines to disturb the peacefulness of the atmosphere and no crowds to out volume the sounds of the birds and the calmer chatter of the people passing a nice evening there. Barbara barely enjoyed all this inside the small electric bus guiding her to the closest stop of the meeting, as her last five hundred metres were spent in a quick run to reach the pin of the shared location by Malina. Before she'd turn the corner at the artificial lake, she catched back her breath and arranged her hair properly, drying the sweat off her forehead with her jersey sleeve. Only when she managed to appear decent behind the locked screen of her phone, she took a deep breath to calm down further and stepped in.
Malina was there, in one of her full black attires shaping her in rigid lines, her hair were still pulled all back in a firm bun, nothing out of the ordinary for her eyes, but her head was already starting to see her as a stranger, much to the uncomfortable growing tension in her chest.
"Sorry, the buses were late this evening." Barbara apologised with a long huff.
Malina turned around and looked up at her. A part of her expression tried to not read that excuse as a good makeover of Barbara literally running at least half the trip to arrive here beside the late public transport, but in the end she wasn't minding for her being late, like her usual, something which she had always calculated in her routine.
"So I wanted to say–"
"What's going on with– Oh, sorry."
Their words overlapped in a rather humorous way, but none of them were laughing in the end. Malina, however, after being gestured to continue, was the first to break out the stalled silence.
"Listen, I have so many things to say and explain about yesterday, but I don't have enough time nor allowances to speak further about this all. All I can say is that nothing that we collected out from you and the rest of the Pilots were used outside the Sport, nor the data we've collected throughout the past year and half–"
"Alright, alright, whatever. Just tell me for how long this was in the back of all of your minds." Barbara cutted her short as she wanted to get directly to the point she was most interested in.
Malina's eyes twitched slightly to squint up at her with mild annoyance at the change of topic, right into the territories she was forbidden to undisclose. With a heavy sigh, she looked away and up to the trees for a moment, just to avoid the glares of the Italian pilot just next to her, itching to know more.
"I can't–"
"I know you can."
"Barbara, I can't tell you that, it's reserved."
The pause got heavier right away, while Malina fought the urge to say even one more word to her friend, if she can still consider herself so after what happened at Subway.
"Best I can say without getting in trouble, we've had this idea for quite some time, just that. I'm sorry if I couldn't really say anything to you." She managed to say in the end, but still unable to meet her gaze. Before she'd react, she continued to talk.
"This means that this might be our last time meeting up, at least for now. We're still getting underway to get the final green lights to be accepted as a full Team next year, this was… a proper test ground for our Speed Class, as you've seen." She ended up saying as she managed to look up at her, her expression shifting from anger to anguish in the span of a few seconds the moment she understood what she meant with the last part.
She might be unable to see her for a very long time, and that ached Barbara to no end, in some ways. That truly added up the insult to the injury. Suddenly, the peaceful atmosphere around them felt oppressive, heavy, unbearable, like someone taking out from her lungs all the air.
Malina's expressions of resignation felt to confirm Barbara's feelings over the matter, and her heart sank down further, all the anger accumulating pouring down her face in heavy tears.
"Hey, you don't have to cry, I'm not truly going to disappear, I'm still… your friend, no?" She asked in the end with a small crack in her voice, with the creeping sensation that things shattered way before that talk.
"You're not going to be my friend, at best you're going to be my rival by next year, and I'll have to accept you as such. And after all you've hidden away from me? Consider it as my most graceful treatment from my side." Barbara replied full of spite.
The initial look of Malina, from nearly understanding and emphatic, shifted to a colder and stern one. Something in that sentence struck hard some chords in her, and Barbara saw it too late under her veiled eyes.
"If this is how you're going to view me from now on, I will do my best to always come on top of the competition, and I will hesitate at nothing to get what I want, even if that means going against you."
Short Race Week - 17th, 18th, 19th of April
The week passed quite fast after they left under such bitter notes, and hopefully the weekend would pass even faster since the next three Race days would be concentrated in rather fast paced events focused in only two places, Queens Mall and Metro Park. On the first there will be a quick Sprint Race in the late afternoon, while on the latter there will be a Race, a simulated Zone event and a Time Trial.
Barbara closed the calendar and rubbed her face under both her palms tiredly, she won't participate in any thankfully, but even her Team was as agitated as herself after the whole Team Pir-hana arrival.
"Hey, Barbara! Are you alright?" A voice called from the other side of the room, and it took only a glance to show that it was Leah, her old friendly rival and now one Barbara could trust to have around the most next to her two other friends.
However, she was in no mood to talk at all, so she came with the fastest excuse she could there at the lounge area.
"Yeah, yeah. I slept badly yesterday and the training felt neverending due to that. Aside from that, I had worse days."
The Swedish Pilot wasn't much convinced, but she tried not to dwell further down to her actual status. She went to sit next to her after she got permission to do so by her Italian friend and flipped out a book, while the surrounding early afternoon lights gave a perfect natural lightning in their surroundings.
Barbara appreciated the silent company, accompanied by the flicking pages and the occasional murmur of the engines just outside the building. The testing was back with de la Rente and Jackson to the upcoming events in Metro Park, while she was sure that Nakajima was already back in the Zone emulator.
All that was left in that suspended time was a heavy silence and a suspension which made her question truly what was going to happen past the end of this Season, now that it was approaching its end.
"Do you think that these Pir-hana guys will make a lot of mess on the grid now that they're a Team?" Barbara suddenly asked, just to break the silence for a bit between them.
Leah put down the book and gazed down at her, sharing an unsure glance to the fellow Test Pilot. "Hmm, if I have to be honest, if the Speed ship is this strong, imagine what a full roster of their Classes can do. However, we still have our Weapons and tactics, we won't be defeated so easily, at least for us."
"I see." Barbara murmured in return, before the silence returned to accompany them.
Somehow, the latter fact reassured her. They still had a stronger and more solid bond than them for sure, there was still hope even if they'd be just as strong - even if she'd be better than any of them.
The voices of Florence and Breakwater became a pleasant presence in the Paddock in the short Race week, cheering the Sprint Race at Queens Mall in an impressive match between Auricom and Qirex.
Four versus four Pilots of each Team on the grid for one intense lap in the late afternoon sun already blazing strong on them. The outcome, through the chaos and fired guns smoke, gave a full win for the American Team, but at the very last moment - Arial Tetsuo, in her Speed Class, managed to sneak past her twin Arian and surprised her with a full line of Mines deployed straight at her nose, right at the last corner before the finish line. It took three people to stop Arian from beating up her sister at the racebox, which didn't happen as her first fist ended up on the bricks of the building.
After the huge fuss, she was brought away by the Federation to tend to her right hand, leaving the first and third Pilot to receive the Passes with the slurs of the Qirex Second Pilot shouted in the distance.
The next day, the Zone event was done together with the Race held at the same track, Metro Park. It was finally time to shine for Sofia, Jackson and Nakajima on that intense day, as Barbara saw the high spirits shown by all three of them when they headed to their respective events. On the real world, even against the Speed ship of Arial and the Agility ship of Cherovoski, the European Team managed to reach the third and fourth position in a consistent show of great tactics and teamwork, while on the longer virtual world, Nakajima ended up second against Nana san, with one Zone of difference between them.
Maybe all the turmoil of the past days were paying off with stronger efforts shown by all the Teams, and they were paying off.
The Time Trial was hosted the next day around the same hour, with the full line of eight Pilots present - even Arian, who has miraculously her wrist still intact and no bones of her hand broken in her attempted fratricide. The hour and twenty minutes of trials began with the departure of the Speed ship of Arial, and the rest followed every ten minutes, with the full track all for them.
Barbara watched the screens with an unfazed expression, although her guts were twisting in anguish upon seeing the same skies and the same relaxing atmosphere she lived through in the very last meeting with Barbara, right there at the lower parts of Central Park. Memories began to resurface at the sight of the glistening yellow ship of Sophia, from the Subway event down to the last salute of Malina as the sun disappeared behind the Manhattan skyline.
'Bring it on, Malina, we'll see who's going to be the most stubborn next season'.